OUTLOOK: Although it popped up on the National Hurricane Center's radar Sunday morning, a tropical disturbance in the far eastern Atlantic already is showing signs of development.

"Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for further development, and a tropical depression could form by midweek," senior hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart wrote in a tropical outlook Sunday afternoon.

For now the system is aiming generally west. It's far too early to say where it might go. The next storm will be named Danny.

PARTICULARS: At 2 a.m. Monday, the hurricane center gave the tropical wave a 70 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression or storm over the next five days.

The system currently is in a moist environment, which should allow it to organize and strengthen. But as it moves farther west across the Atlantic, it likely will encounter dry air and wind shear.

Normally, four tropical systems develop in August. The last time August went without seeing any storms was in 1997 - and before that in 1961.